Even if you would never see yourself buying a gaming laptop, you should take the time to read Monica Chin's review of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.There are a lot — I mean a LOT — of remarkable things about this laptop.

First and foremost, it is running on the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS chip, which runs at 35W with 8 cores at 3.0 GHz that can boost up to 4.4 GHz. In context, what that actually means is that it outclasses anything Intel has put into a laptop to date. I've been anticipating this release ever since Nilay Patel interviewed AMD CEO Lisa Su earlier this year. She talked big game then, and by all accounts her company has delivered.

What's most remarkable about this laptop is that by gaming laptop standards it is absolutely thin and light. You can get a build with a 120Hz display (at 1080p) and Monica say she's getting nearly nine hours of battery life in regular day-to-day use. That's unheard of.

Unfortunately, if like me you were thinking "Well I wanted to get into PC gaming so I'll make this my main laptop," you should know that it doesn't come with a webcam. Which is a curious choice.

Intel still has new 10th Gen chips due later this year that may compete, but as Monica wrote, "Asus and AMD have successfully put Intel on notice." This isn't the only difficult news Intel is facing this week. Acer is joining Asus in making laptops with AMD Ryzen 4000 mobile processors, too.

And then there's ongoing rumors of the Mac switching to ARM. The latest report from Ming-chi Kuo says that there will be "several" next year. If "several" means "at least three," then that's two more ARM-based Macs than I figured Apple would release to start. If it's true, it's a very aggressive transition plan coming just one year after a bunch of people will have purchased new MacBooks because they were holding out for better keyboards. Something to watch for!

It's not all bummer news for Intel, though. After flirting with ARM for years, it seems like all the decent Chromebooks run Intel now. And Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook hits shelves April 6th. This laptop is the latest test to see if there's demand for a high-end Chromebook — the first since the Pixelbook. In fact, I think it's fair to say Google chose not to rev the Pixelbook and instead put that effort into helping Samsung out with this.

As for whether it will be a successful test, well, first we have to review it and see if it's any good. My main concern during the hands-on was screen wobble when typing. I am rooting for it if only because I love the color so much — fewer gray laptops more intense colors like this red please.

When it comes to value for money, Microsoft's subscription that gets you a bunch of OneDrive storage, access to Office apps, and a few spiffy add-ons is better than what Google and Apple have on offer. I'll be very curious to see if there's consumer uptake on Microsoft Teams, too. I tend to doubt it — but the coronavirus has more people than ever using enterprise tools like Zoom for non-business use.

Verge Deal of the day

If you're hoping to get a deal on new releases like Doom: Eternal for PS4 or Xbox One, your best bet right now is to take advantage of Target's buy two, get one free promotion. Several games are included in the sale, like Control, Borderlands 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and more. As is usually the case with these promos, you'll get the game of lesser value for free. Or, if you buy two games for $60 each, you can get a third fully-priced game for free.

Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy. Prices displayed are based on the MSRP at time of posting.

Amazon has a strong infrastructure for keeping its warehouse employees informed. For example, when the company announces mandatory overtime, Palmer points out, the company sends out texts and emails to every worker. "With this incident, they have not sent out one text — nothing at all," Palmer says.

You are reading Processor, a newsletter about computers by Dieter Bohn. Dieter writes about consumer tech, software, and the most important news of the day from The Verge. This newsletter delivers about four times a week, at least a couple of which include longer essays.